As the fall semester begins, the Quinnipiac community welcomes Jarice Hanson, Ph.D., as the new Dean of the School of Mass Communications at Quinnipiac University.
Originally from Chicago, Hanson has worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation in London, WBBM-CBS O&O in Chicago, taught at Rutgers University, and most recently at the University of Massachusetts-Amhearst. Coming from UMass, where the number of undergraduates is sixfold in comparison with Quinnipiac, Hanson said one really gets to know the students here.
Hanson plans on getting to know the students, especially by having the students and faculty working hand-in-hand. Hanson hopes to develop more programs for the students, but in a new and innovative way. Hanson said, “I want the prgrams to be generated by students, instead of being proposed by me.” She hopes that these new programs will directly serve the students’ interests.
Another project of Hanson’s is that she wants an electronic newslestter for students in the School of Mass Communications, as to keep everyone informed with what’s going on in the department.
Hanson also plans to teach a mass communications class once a year. Although unsure of which class she will teach, Hanson said, “I would really like to teach a freshman class, and then follow them all the way through the rest of their years at Quinnipiac.”
Where does the interests of woman with over thirty years experience in media and a Ph.D. in Radio-Television-Film lie? Where else but in acting and directing theater. Hanson has worked in professional theater doing mostly acting for nine years. Just last month in South Hampton, Mass., Hanson performed in a one week summer stock of “Angel Street.” She has also worked for the Second City Workshop, which is the company that gave birth to “Saturday Night Live” and “Second City TV.” Although acting seems to be Hanson’s passion, she also enjoys skiing.
Hanson has been here at Quinnipiac for less than two weeks, but is already “pleased to be apart of a faculty so committed,” and to be apart of an “institute of higher learning on the move.”